I mentioned in another thread we were awarded a 12 lot clearing project along with road work from a developer, lot's are on a lake about 50 min from where I live, outside my service area but this will take 5 staff all summer, can leave the equipment there and am looking at renting a 5th wheel for them to stay in or rent a cottage nearby.

So I went to John Deere to order another chipper last week, ended up buying a demo 2520 tractor with a loader that will run the chipper. The chipper arrived today and I went to pick it up, it is not the chipper model I ordered, confusion somehow at Bearcat, anyhow the dealer said to take it and try it for a couple of days, the issue is it's gravity feed but it has a shredder built in that will shred a 45 gallon drum of leaves in 60 seconds.

I tried the chipper at home and it's crazy, it will throw chips 40 feet easy on high, tried the shredder and the leaves come out like powder so I started thinking, our city is mainly hardwood and they are everywhere. In the fall leaves are a major issue in the city as they clog drains and we tend to get a lot of tropical storms in the early fall.

So my question is do any of you offer leaf shredding to clients? Does it sell well? I was thinking it might be a good fall business opportunity as I have two lawn sweepers that pick up leaves super fast, they could be fed into this unit and the client could keep the shredding as it would be mulch in no time. The timing isn't right to survey clients as summer has barely started here, mention a fall service and they might shoot you....

Steve

06-10-2009, 11:12 PM

That is a very interesting service! I am thinking maybe if it were marketed in a way that would show the lawns benefiting from the leaves being shredded, maybe that would help sell the service?

the issue is it's gravity feed but it has a shredder built in that will shred a 45 gallon drum of leaves in 60 seconds.

How did the other shredders operate if they weren't gravity fed?

turfmaster

06-11-2009, 01:07 AM

Andy you could make your own compost with the shredded leaves. :)

SuperiorPower

06-11-2009, 04:43 AM

Andy you could make your own compost with the shredded leaves. :)

Exactly my thots. Don't leaves compost quickly once they are shredded like that? They would be great humus for the lawn, I would think.

picframer

06-11-2009, 05:23 AM

That is a very interesting service! I am thinking maybe if it were marketed in a way that would show the lawns benefiting from the leaves being shredded, maybe that would help sell the service?

How did the other shredders operate if they weren't gravity fed?

I can take a picture however they are fed by a round drum right next to the chipper flywheel that has teeth all the way across. On the trunl of a tree a self feed works excellent however 70% of this wood chipping is branches so you need something that draws what you are chipping into the cutterhead, self feed you would have to push it by hand, this kills your arms from the vibration of the piece going through the chipper, much slower also or you have to cut branches off the branches so it will feed itself, very time consuming.

This unit is $4,999, I am a bit torn as I don't know if there will be that much demand for shredding and I don't see it as something the tree crews would like using.

picframer

06-11-2009, 05:34 AM

Andy you could make your own compost with the shredded leaves. :)

As funny as that comment may sound, here is a true story.

I have a 1947 International Super H tractor I bought when I was 15 from the original owner, still have it and it's in mint condition. One day I get a call from this Owen fellow, about two or three years ago, said he was a vintage tractor collector, said he herd I had an old H and would like to have a look, I said sure but it's not for sale and I love talking tractors.

He arrived, a man in his mid to late 70's, we talked for hours, he informed me he had over 225 completly restored tractors, then it struck me this is Owen Davis of Davis Construction, the largest excavation company in our province. Anyhow he wanted to walk around the property, this guy was a super person and you could tell he had a heart of gold, he noticed a pile of wood chips, I had been clearing an area for fire wood.

He said Andy, when this whole Organic thing started in Halifax years ago and the province made some changes I bought three industrial chippers as we could not find a company to come and chip wood at sites we were working on promptly and the Province changed the laws on burying stumps and trees, then I bid on chipping Christmas trees for the city and won the contract. He chipped them on his business property and turned the product into mulch, spruce and fir bows make super black compost and is considered one of the best going. He told me he sells close to $500,000 a year in compost made for the cost of the machine and operator, customers come to his yard and bag themselves.

I like these kind of success stories as they teach us to look around, there could be a gold mine right under our nose.

Andy

picframer

06-11-2009, 05:38 AM

Exactly my thots. Don't leaves compost quickly once they are shredded like that? They would be great humus for the lawn, I would think.

Well the city will not take them as garbage so you have to pay to take them to a compost facility, I have no idea what they do with them however I will find out the rates etc today.

Yes leaves brake down very fast, there are organic actuators you can spray on the shredded leaves and it turns it to compost in a couple of months. This may be a whole other area we could get into and it's something that really interests me as it's in keeping with the company organic way.

turfmaster

06-11-2009, 09:57 AM

Yes leaves brake down very fast, there are organic actuators you can spray on the shredded leaves and it turns it to compost in a couple of months. This may be a whole other area we could get into and it's something that really interests me as it's in keeping with the company organic way.